Topics
Kayes, 
Mali
278,727 people lived in Kayes in 2025. It is the 2083rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in Mali.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Kayes grew
Where Kayes had 10 people in 1990, it had 51.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 461,660 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2020 and 2025. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Kayes through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kayes in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mali · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mali and its 20 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Bamako). Kayes is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Kayes covered 44 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 9.8 km² of it. That is 35 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown by 85%, and its people are 5.1 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Mali
Its share of Mali
Of every 100 people in Mali in 2025, 1 lived in Kayes, which is 278,727 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Mali; the coloured squares live in Kayes. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 2079 Mweka Democratic Republic of the Congo279,312
- 2080 Ekma India279,229
- 2081 Salalah Oman279,161
- 2082 Medininagar India278,795
- 2083 Kayes278,727
- 2087 Saraf `Umrah Sudan278,467
- 2091 Murmansk Russia277,693
- 2092 Dhaulpur India277,498
- 2093 Taunggyi Myanmar277,312
In Mali, 2025
- 103 Bamako4,244,881
- 1461 Sikasso389,804
- 1962 Ségou295,589
- 2050 Koutiala283,496
- 2083 Kayes278,727
- 3607 Gao167,417
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Kayes are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Kayes publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries